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Now thank we all our God! - Psalm 100 By Pastor Lee Hemen November 20, 2011 AM For some people being thankful is kind of like the story told about a 4-year-old daughter and her mother who were strolling through an open-air market. As the little girl stared at a large pile of oranges, a generous vendor took one from the pile and handed it to the little girl. “What do you say to the nice man?” the mother asked her daughter. The little girl looked at the orange, then thrust it toward the man and said, “Peel it!” Often, thankfulness is something we learn and grow into. How easy it is for us to respond to God’s graciousness like that 4-year-old. An attitude of being thankful is a mark of a maturing faith. The early Pilgrims understood this. In fact, after surviving the first years in the American wilderness, they deliberately set out to print a song book of praise taken from the Psalms. The Bay Psalm Book is an important piece of our nation’s history. It was the first book entirely written ...

John 17:20-26 - Jesus prayed for us! By Pastor Lee Hemen November 6, 2011 AM “I’ll pray for you” are words often uttered as an empathetic gesture by many, yet they can have a tremendous impact on the life of a person. Have you ever had someone pray for you? Perhaps you were sick, maybe even in the hospital, and someone from the church stopped by and, after a brief visit, prayed for your recovery. Or perhaps there was a significant decision to be made, and someone from your family prayed with you and for you. How do you feel when someone prays for you? We discover that Jesus paused to pray for his disciples, but did you know he also prayed for each of us as well? On the night he was betrayed, the Son of God himself prayed — not just for the little band of Galileans who followed him across the Palestinian landscape for three years — but for each one of us here this morning! Let’s discover what Jesus prayed… READ: John 17:20-26 We may have forgotten that prayer is much more tha...

The Great Awakening - Romans 1:18; Joel 2:1-2, 11-13, 15-18, 28-32 By Pastor Lee Hemen Oct 30, 2011 AM Today, we will finish our study on prayer by putting into practice what we have learned from God through his Word. Everything we’ve focused on has been in preparation for this evening, when we will gather as one body of believers to pray for the dreams and plans God has for us as a church in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead. Why is this important? It is important because never before has there been a time when our nation and world is in greater need of a Savior. It is a time set apart time for personal and corporate prayer, crying out to God in repentance and fresh surrender for all his purposes and power to break forth upon our church, our city, and our country. Since 1947, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has depicted on its cover what is called the Doomsday Clock. This clock registers how close the world is to nuclear apocalypse by the proximity of the minu...

The Great Awakening - Romans 1:18; Joel 2:1-2, 11-13, 15-18, 28-32 By Pastor Lee Hemen Oct 30, 2011 AM Today, we will finish our study on prayer by putting into practice what we have learned from God through his Word. Everything we’ve focused on has been in preparation for this evening, when we will gather as one body of believers to pray for the dreams and plans God has for us as a church in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead. Why is this important? It is important because never before has there been a time when our nation and world is in greater need of a Savior. It is a time set apart time for personal and corporate prayer, crying out to God in repentance and fresh surrender for all his purposes and power to break forth upon our church, our city, and our country. Since 1947, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has depicted on its cover what is called the Doomsday Clock. This clock registers how close the world is to nuclear apocalypse by the proximity of the minu...

The principles of a powerful prayer meeting, Part 2 By Pastor Lee Hemen’ October 23, 2011 AM Last time, we asked why Elijah, Moses, Joshua, Jesus and Paul were so filled with confidence when praying about the impossible that they often announced that it would take place even before they prayed! How could they be so sure that God would answer their prayers? I believe it was because they had paid the price of being alone with God. They had come to know the very heart and intent of God. They began to see life from his perspective instead of their own. Fervent focused prayer surged through their spiritual souls and it beat with the intense intimacy they shared with the Father. They sought the Lord until they knew what he was doing and joined him in doing it! Therefore, they saw the power of God displayed in response to their prayers. This is the very essence of what Jesus meant by abiding in him, without which we will not know what God’s will is or what to ask him. We find that...

Principles for a Powerful Prayer Meeting, Part 1 - Acts 12:1-11 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 16, 2011 AM There is a plain marker on a neglected grave in a cemetery near the Canadian border that reads, “Daniel Nash, Pastor, Laborer with Finney, Mighty in Prayer.” Who was Nash? He never had the limelight but he shook heaven and hell because he believed in the power of prayer. Charles Finney, a former lawyer turned preacher by the call of God, was one of the key figures during the Second Great Awakening in 19th Century America. In the seven years in which Finney preached, there were an estimated 500,000 conversions. However, if you asked Finney, he would have given the credit for his crusades to Daniel Nash. When Finney went to a city to preach, Nash would arrive several weeks early, rent a room, find other Christians to join him, and start a prayer meeting to pray for souls. He rarely attended but stayed hidden, agonized in prayer for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to melt ...

Hindrances to Effective Prayer - James 4:1-10 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 9, 2011 AM We can let the littlest things in life frustrate us. A red light that doesn’t turn green fast enough, a slow checkout line, or just a bad mood! Have you ever tried praying at those times? I have. It is hard for me to do. I guess it is because my heart and thoughts are not in the right place! There are hindrances in life, aren’t there? Sometimes these hindrances keep us from the full and richness of a personal relationship with the Lord in prayer. It can be a bad attitude, hurt feelings, not getting our way, ungodly behavior or several other things that hinder our time alone with God. God desires and wants to spend time alone with us in prayer. If progress in the Christian life depends upon our prayer, if we are commanded to pray, if promises on a cosmic scale are made to those who pray--what would a waiting Heavenly Father think if we refused to pray? James introduces for us this morning th...

The power that unleashes God’s will! - Revelation 8:1-5 By Pastor Lee Hemen October 2, 2011 AM John Franklin, in his book “And the Place Was Shaken”, recounts a time in 1990 when he joined about 250 people in a two-week evangelistic crusade in Mombasa, Kenya. They were divided into teams of three, each team going hut-to-hut and house-to-house, presenting the Gospel. Franklin said he was in awe. “A few times in my life I have been in a service or prayer meeting where the manifest presence of God could be felt but never before in a whole city. Wherever we walked, the presence of the Lord tangibly permeated the land, so much so that often people were saved by the dozens.” His team was walking down a dirt road that led to the next village. Three Kenyan men were seated on stools by the roadside. One inquired, “Excuse me are you from America?” Franklin replied, “Yes.” “Are you one of the ones who has come here to tell us the word of God?” “Yes,” he answered. The man responded, “W...